Yesterday I headed out to the range.  While I was there I saw the usual suspects.  

Two older guys in "feed caps" with bolt guns.

The disabled handgun toting vet with his wife.

A group of Marines with one used and abused Desert Eagle .44 Magnum.

And two armed hippies.  You know, normal hippyware - "tricked out" SKS, "accessorized" MAC-90, Taurus .357 complete with Uncle Mike's "tactical" nylon shoulder holster.

When the range went hot those hippies literally had a blast.  It was hilarious.  Long pony tails, big goofy grins, the acrid smell of surplus 7.62X39mm, flying brass and frantic reloads.

Now I know some purists will want to make snide remarks as to their panache, skill and form.  But just watching them took me back to when I was in college.  I'd work all sorts of crappy jobs on the side just to afford ammo and gunclub dues.  Then I'd take my surplus M1 carbine - a dog by any other standard - out to the plinking range and rip through tons of ammo.  

Later I got "serious" about shooting, and I think I lost something.

Just watching those boy go made me grin.  The older bolt gun enthusiasts at the range looked dismal and annoyed.  They glance over at me and rolled their eyes.  I just smiled and leaned into my AR.

Defferent strokes for different folks.  These guys are on our side.

A lot of "hippies" also got their hair cut off in the 60's, went to Vietnam, and either got killed fighting for their country, came back with injuries, or at least served with honor.

Long hair alone does not make a person a hippy. These guys were probably just long haired rednecks. I know plenty of them!

Being part hippie myself ( on my Mothers side ) I think it is always good to see fellow hippies at the range.  Does not happen to often but it is always cool.  For about 2 months after 9-11 they where alot of younger kids our there and moms and old ladies.  Now it has gone back to normal, but I miss seeing all the different people shooting.  Still my favorite is hippies.

yeah! were they driving trucks, or rattletrap cars?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not flaming the hippies.  I'm just saying that they made me remember my youth, and sometimes when I let a string of rapid fire rip downrange I still get that high school / college feeling.

They had a blst, and I had a blast watching the old deer hunters cringe everytime a shell casing hit a rafter and came bouncing back to them.[:)]

I can relate.  Once or twice a month a bunch of friends (all students at the university here) come with me to the range and we have tons of fun with my SKS and a few cheap .22 pistols.  A few deer hunter-types give us wierd looks, but for the most part everybody gets along well.  My favorite feeling is when I'm shooting empty paint cans at 25 yards with the SKS, and I hit one just right, sending it flying 30-40 feet in the air.  Hearing the "oooooh"s and "aaaahh"s is great.  To me that's a lot more fun than driving all the way to the range just to shoot a half-dozen handloads and call it a day.  

Armed Hippie reporting for duty, man.  I mean SIR!

I went to the range yesterday to shoot my 1911 for a couple of hours.  I have a goatee and long hair in a ponytail.  I was wearing a black t-shirt bearing the logo of Haight-Ashbury T-Shirts in Berkeley, CA.  (Also desert camo BDU pants and Silencio Magnum earmuffs with little pictures of handguns on the cups).

The last time I felt uncomfortable with a group of gun people was in 1990 when a friend and I went to a meeting of the South Bay Rod and Gun Club in Dulzura (way out highway 94 east of San Diego).  The hot issue being discussed was the specter of Roberti-Roos and whether or not people were going to register their ARs, etc.  I don't know if it was our hippie-like appearance or just our youth, but my friend and I didn't get a good vibe from the members, so we didn't join.

I think pro-gun people have awakened to the fact that we cannot exclude other gun owners for any reason, as long as they aren't @$$holes.

I would have to say these were probably not hippies. True hippies are nothing more than misplaced socialists. Ergo their practices; living in communes and sharing everything equally no matter who worked harder. Since these boys were enjoying the shooting arts, they were probably just long-hairs, nothing more.

gunsob,

TRUE hippies cashed in on that good ole '80's greed and are now living in the 'burbs and driving Lexus SUV's.  TRUE hippies have morphed into 'boomer yuppies.

These guys were NC hippies from "down east".

P.S.  I used to love the guys who came to WV in the '70's to "turn on, tune in and drop out".  I knew a bunch of them, and now they're mostly class III fanatics!  

Hey man, another armed hippie here, I'm like reporting for this freaky service, man.

Well, I [b]WAS[/b] an armed hippie...until yesterday.  Now I'm just armed.  Got the haircut and lost the 8" ponytail.  I'm still scruffy and freaky looking, but I don't have the mane I used to.  

And yes, I got looks at the range, but usually it was for the hardware, not the hair.

Ahhh, This story takes me back to the good old days, Before I sold out to the man, And used to have long Ted Nugent hair, drive a White 71 VW camper bus, Blast away with CAR-15's while listening to Led Zepplin-Physical Graffitti in my Silenco hearing protection, from A walkman, while wearing a black Pink Floyd T-shirt and Tiger stripe BDU pants.

that Old VW bus, at any given time, Was generaly better armed (Back in the Cabinets) than most police cruisers of the day.

God I get Maudlin and Nostaligic just thinking about those days....Sigh

Long hair and hippie clothes don't make those dudes hippies.  As somebody already stated they were probably long-haired rednecks.  But, there is the possibility that they were just college students who have taken up the hippie image to camoflage themselves amongst the throngs of hackysack-kicking, ultimate-frisbee-playing, pot-smoking, braindead, sexually-confused, protesting, commie, leftist, liberal pukes who pollute most college campuses.

The 60s are dead.  Hippies suck.  Neo-hippies suck even harder (I've heard they swallow too).  There is no "unjust" war to protest.  There is no racial inequality (except in the imaginative minds of black "leaders").  I hate the causeheads man, [b][red]HATE[/b][/red] them.

I've found one here as well. His name is DScott.